Dragonstime: Dragon in New York City
by Thais of the Star
Summary: After several turns, Nairyry finaly comes to see W'lam as more than a friend. When she sends herself back in time to earth, Nairyry and her queen find friends in teens Jess and Tristan, two unusual New Yorkers. Dragonstime series, 1. Edited Feb. 3
1. Nairyry, Queenrider

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter One: _Nairyry, Queenrider_

_The little queen hatchling swung her head, searching through the five girls before her for the right one. She looked at each girl carefully, trying to find her rider. After scrutinizing each she turned away with a hungry, sad creel. Then the little golden dragon stared across the Nais Weyr Hatching Grounds, up into the stands. The first Southern Weyr to be situated like most of the Northern ones, in a volcanic crater, was also the smallest on Pern, only looking after the few small family groups in the large region._

_Nairyry looked on as the small creature stumbled awkwardly around in the hot sands. At last she stood directly beneath the apprentice Harper and cried piteously to her. "No!" cried Nairyry, seeing the little queen staring directly at her, not at anyone else on the Grounds, though the five girls were trailing after her with false hope._

_"She wants you, Nyr! So get down there!" The little queen, who told the young woman that her name was Thyrath, hissed and demanded food. "Get down there!" cried Master Tarak, her uncle who had brought her to the Hatching as he pushed her forward. Her fire lizard, brown Chilfer squeaked as they were unceremoniously dumped off her shoulders, then flew in circles above her, caroling the dragon's choice._

I am most hungry, Nairyry! You are my rider- it is your fault if I starve, you know, _called Thyrath, eyes whirling with a little red. She turned and stumbled along with the former Harper, who was dashing to the stairs. When she reached her new queen Nairyry hugged the large head to her and scratched under the chin._

_She and the golden dragonet were brought with the other newly Impressed pairs and presented with a large bucket of meat._

_As she fed her queen Nairyry wondered if she would be able to keep playing, even with the young gold dragon. Maybe the Weyrsinger could teach her as well. Maybe she would become his assistant._

_If. Perhaps. Might. Maybe._

_She knew better: music was now a thing of the past. Sometimes she might sing, but music was truly lost to her. Now that she had Impressed, though, she would not trade Jayrath for all the music in the Harper Hall._

000

Slowly Nairyry woke. The dream had been a memory of her Impression day to Thyrath, the year the meteor strike in the sea and the resulting tsunami. Looking back Nairyry was glad she had not been a dragonrider or a sea holder in that time; it was hard enough being inland, at the Harper Hall, knowing Masterharper Robinton would protect the Hall. Thought of the queen made her turn her head to her dragon's weyr; the sounds of Thyrath waking slowly made her smile.

_Good morning,_ she called. The dragon muttered something about needing food today, and waited while her rider dressed and washed. Nairyry made her way to her queen and they dropped down to the Feeding Grounds. She watched as Thyrath quickly snatched a buck in either forepaw and carried them away to eat. When the queen was finished Nairyry called her back and she had her own, blood-free breakfast.

She called her dragon in. In their weyr she oiled the golden hide fully, and her dragon sighed. Nairyry smiled. _You're not growing anymore,_ she noted. _Good._ Thyrath replied that there was a fierce itch on her shoulder. _No, the other one. Ahhhhhh…_

Invariably, as it always did, the thought of her queen stopping growing led to thinking of mating flights. What was it really like? Did the Queenrider, or Greenrider now that girls were allowed to rider green here at Nais, have any choice in the matter? And mating flights lead to more hatchlings, and hatchlings to fighting dragons, and fighting dragons to the nearly-gone menace of Thread. The Last Pass, the Ninth, would finish within the Turn. What would happen to the dragons? Queens would not be needed to produce good clutches, for there would scarcely be a need for large numbers of the great creatures.

As had everyone on Pern, she had heard that the Aivas machine was very close, with the help of a select (well, _few_ was not right. A select _many_, really it was!) to the annihilation of Thread forever, not just this Pass. What would she do? All the dragonriders, except perhaps greens and blues who wouldn't mind becoming message carriers and a kind of fast transportation.

Her queen chirped. Brown Chilfer added his encouragements. Nairyry had to smile. They would go do anything they wished, for the world would not need them. They might even decide they didn't need this world. The Aivas had let it be known that humans came from another world. Were there other worlds, that might need Queen- and Bronzeriders? Even some Brownriders? And of course all their dragons.

The Weyrsinger, named W'lam, asked his bronze Jurcath to contact hers, telling her he was coming for her lessons. She smiled; her dreams of the impossible –being able to play as well as ride a dragon– were not so impossible as she had thought on her Impression Day. For a bronze rider he really was all right. And he was continuing to help her learn music, even though she had thought it was unlikely for her to be a Harper-Dragonrider. Well, she still wasn't, but at least she was still learning some music.

W'lam entered, and her fire lizard swooped around him, chattering excitedly to see their friend. He grinned when Chilfer landed on his shoulder. His own lizard, blue Freet flew about him and scolded the brown for taking over his human. He landed smartly on the other shoulder and licked a talon.

"Let him go, Chilfer. Come here!" Her fire lizard broke off his good-natured assault on the bronze rider's ear. His own landed on his now-vacated shoulder as the brown settled imperiously on Thyrath's large head as she ducked it out to greet W'lam.

The Weyrsinger made a show of relief at his deliverance. "I hope he'll sing with us today, even after bombarding me," he said with a grin. Nairyry gestured to a seat, and they each took one, still grinning. "Actually," he said, "I've a new song to sing with you."

"Really?" she asked eagerly.

The Weyrsinger nodded. "Special for the next Impression. I though we could sing it then, with the fire lizards." He handed her a sheet of the Aivas-improved paper with music on it.

"It needs three people," she observed.

He nodded. "Our trio will become a duet for now, and our friend will come in later. Now, you'll play the harp, I'll be on guitar, and our friend will come later with a violin. All of us will sing the chorus, but I'll do the first verse, you'll do the second, and our friend will do the third.

"On the end, here" he tapped the final measures "each one of us, me, you and than our friend, will take a line. Then we do the chorus together again, but with this ending." He pointed to an extra line down at the bottom that didn't fit with the song. "For now you and I'll just rehearse the words. Tomorrow we'll start instruments. Depending on where we are then, we'll put it together and our friend'll join us soon after."

"So who's 'our friend'?" asked Nairyry.

"Wait and see, Nyr." He grinned at her frown. "Just wait and see."

With a sigh at W'lam's secrecy, she turned her mind to the music.


	2. Music

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Two: _Music_

W'lam folded up the music sheets and prepared to leave from the lesson. Nairyry stretched; she had been sitting in the chair through his teaching for the past two hours. "So just when is 'our friend' going to show up?" she asked again. It was four days past the first time she had seen the new music for the Impression day and the person the Weyrsinger still referred to as 'our friend' had not put in an appearance.

"Our friend had sent a message, by fire lizard, that we'll all practice together two days from now." W'lam still refused to name the mysterious harpist who was to join in.

Nairyry hoped that 'our friend' knew the music so they could mostly work on fine-tuning it –she smiled slightly at the pun on string instruments– perfectly for the Impression, likely to come within the week. W'lam picked up his guitar while the Queenrider slipped her lap harp into its wherhide case.

Thyrath rumbled as the Weyrsinger passed her, and he bowed to the gold dragon, who nodded to him, eyes whirling gently.

_He is a good bronze rider,_ Thyrath told her rider. _I like him._

_So do I, but that doesn't mean he likes me back._ Nairyry sighed at the understatement. She had come to realize that, despite the Threadscore scar running in a pattern down his cheek, he was not all that hard on her eyes. Truth be told, she thought, knowing her dragon would likely know what she was thinking, truth be told she liked him more than a friend.

If she was honest she thought him the best man she had met. It was still a lie to herself and her dragon.

If her dragon was to rise to mate she wanted it to be with Jurcath. She wanted it to be W'lam who was beside her then, not a strange, distant ma. But she couldn't really feel anything besides fear towards the dragon's mating flight. Not since…

_I like Jurcath too. He like me. So does W'lam,_ Thyrath said, eyes whirling gently in understanding at her rider.

_Everyone like you, silly,_ she thought back with a grin. _You're a queen!_

_And they like you too. Not just because you're my rider- they like you for who you are. So does W'lam,_ she added slyly. _And I like Jurcath very much too._

_Really?_ asked Nairyry in surprise.

Her dragon nodded with a satisfied rumble.

She turned her attention back. W'lam was watching her, and amused expression on his face. "What?" she asked him a little defensively.

"It's just funny to see a rider's face as she talks to her dragon," he explained, and she shrugged. "See you and 'our friend' later," he added and turned with a wave.

"W'lam?" she asked the Weyrsinger tentatively. "What-" she swallowed, the started again. "What is a mating flight like?" She stood, biting her lip, twisting her fingers together and rushed on. "I think she's due to rise soon. I'd like to know what to expect."

The bronze rider looked at her for a moment.

He came back in a set his thing on the ground next to his chair, inviting her to sit as well. "My Jurcath once rose and caught a green dragon. It –for me– was loosing myself with Jurcath. Their emotions" he waved to Thyrath " fill the riders, until the riders can no longer resist. They are too caught in their dragon's feelings to notice anything else. They are together as their dragons are. It is impossible to stop. When the woman accept the man, it is wonderful."

He paused, eyes bleak. "Sometimes the woman resists, but the man is too carried away with his dragon to notice. Then it is as good as rape." He blinked.

Both realized they were blushing. W'lam cleared his throat self consciously. "Perhaps you should get another Queenrider to explain. I'll make a botch of the woman's side."

"Thank you," she told him, still very aware that he was quite male. He nodded, cleared his throat again and strode out of the room, still pink.

000

The day after the next she was sitting, waiting for her lessons with the Weyrsinger and for 'our friend' to show up.

W'lam came soon after noon. He was alone.

"I thought you said that you mysterious friend was coming today," she complained, frowning a little at him,

"Later, Nyr. Our friend will join us today. After one more round just you and me." W'lam grinned as the Queenrider threw a withering look at him and pretended fright.

After running through the song with harp for Nairyry, guitar for W'lam and voice together she looked expectantly at the doorway. No one came in.

"Let's start again," he suggested. She sighed, but started strumming the harp in the opening phrase.

Halfway through a violin cam in. Nairyry kept her attention on the harping and singing. When a rather deep but clear and emotional woman's voice sang the part they had always left open she kept her eyes divided between harp and music, making sure she got it right.

The song ended with a flourish on each instrument. Then Nairyry eagerly looked up at the tall woman.

She wore her long black hair in a braid down her back, and held her violin carefully in a slender hand as she smiled at the Queenrider. The woman wore brown pants and a silver-gray shirt with a forest green tunic over, like the others, though Nairyry's was deep violet. At her side was a belt knife, and she wore hard-soled tan boots, as did the other two.

"This is the friend I spoke of. Nyr, may I present Talsan, granddaughter of Weyrwoman Lessa and Weyrleader F'lar, daughter of Bronzrider F'lessan and Lady Greenrider Tai. Talsan is also the rider of golden Sanmyth."


	3. Memories

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Three: _Memories_

"Now that was laying it on a bit thick," protested Talsan as she saw Nairyry blink without saying anything. "Just look at her- you've gone and made her think I'm somebody important." she scolded. Though her tone was stern she was grinning. "To rephrase W'lam's glorifying titles: I'm Talsan, rider of gold Sanmyth."

Nairyry jumped to her feet and took the offered hand. "Nairyry, rider of Thyrath."

"I came here for music, not to dance around with titles, W'lam," the other Goldrider told their mutual friend firmly as she raised her violin again, and set it ready to play her part. "Anyway, she's older than I am!"

By now, it seemed, all of them had their music memorized, but Nairyry kept her music with her. Better safe than sorry if she forgot in the middle.

000

They started the opening verse, and soon forgot about the audience. Glancing up once at Talsan Nairyry smiled to herself as she plucked out her notes on the harp and took a breath for singing. Somehow she was still unnerved at playing in a trio with the granddaughter of likely the most famous Weyrwoman and Weyrleader to date.

When the song ended in the graceful flourish she had come to love she sighed, part from regret, part from relief. It was nice to be done with the stomach-fluttering performance, yet she had liked the piece and it was hard to give up. And playing with Talsan had been quite a treat too; each knew they were all great musicians. They bowed as their audience applauded them, then the Queenrider left the stage to the Weyrsinger, who began a widely-known song as a duet with a Brownrider. Others joined in, not including Talsan and Nairyry.

"It's over," commented Talsan. Nairyry could hear the same regret in her voice that she felt. "It was a pleasure, Nairyry. I hope we shall play together often soon." She offered her hand and the Queenrider took it, nodding.

"Yes, it was good. But now it'll be just poor W'lam and I. Do come as soon as you can."

"I shall, and this time I won't be so late in rehearsals." The young woman grinned at her new friend.

"If you please, Talsan."

They shared a last smile over Talsan's well-joked-over overdue appearance to join their little band before she turned to listen to something an elderly rider told her.

Nairyry stopped at a table to get a glass of wine and congratulate a new female Greenrider. She remembered well what it had meant to her to be welcomed by people she had previously thought to important to bother with her. The Greenrider still seemed dazed from the Impression, having never thought she'd have a chance with so many others there.

The Goldrider remembered the Hatching, and young Roencally's Impression to her little green Chutith.

As always, the boys crowded around the first hatchling, a brown. He looked around at them as a blue hatched, and they made for a pair of boys at the same time. The taller of the two had looked at the little brown as he stood and stared, then knelt slowly and put his hand on the dragonet's neck. Then he had hugged the little brown to him as the blue butted his chosen rider. More eggs had cracked, spilling more blues and browns as well as greens and the five sturdy bronzes. Even without a queen egg there were girls, for the greens, and four of the six girls had already Impressed the female dragons when the last egg cracked her shell.

Chutith had emerged, a smaller, daintier green even than most, and stepped lightly away from her shell. Roencally had been standing against the wall, looking quite overwhelmed by it all, and Chutith had looked around at all the remaining boys and the other girl. Then, without hesitation she had strode much more steadily than most of the other newly hatched dragonets across the hot sands and stood squarely in front of Roencally.

She had only stared, then suddenly sat. Chutith had come over and thrummed at her until Roencally had hesitantly, absently scratched the little green's eye ridges. She had grinned, her face lighting up, and took the hatchling dragon in her arms.

Nairyry remembered her own Impression, as well as all those she had witnessed, over and over again through the feast. Thyrath touched her mind gently, and they remembered together.

Eventually Nairyry sought fresh air, and returned to her weyr. There she exchanged her party dress for riding gear and called her queen to go flying to the beach. By now it was late in the afternoon, and the shadows were lengthening. She gave Thyrath the coordinates for a beach they knew, and her dragon rumbled happily as they transferred _between_.

It was still warm and Nairyry gave her dragon permission to swim while she lay back on the sand.

_What will be do?_ she asked, not consciously trying to reach her dragon, but knowing vaguely that she heard. _Pern will no longer need us. You are a queen of dragons; there will be little need for clutches._ She gazed at the stars as she lay on the cool sands with her sun-gilded brown hair spread out, remembering with awe the Harper's diagrams and charts from the Aivas of the orbits of the Red Star and of Pern.

_"We came from Earth," the Harper said. "And other worlds."_

_Other worlds. Do they have dragons? If we have no place here… would they perhaps need us, these other worlds?_ The explosion of the Red Star's orbit had taken place long before her Impression of Thyrath. She had been too young to fully understand the significance of that action, but she had understood one thing:

Thread is gone. But it was not gone. She had misinterpreted. This would be the last pass, is what they had said, not this is the last of Thread _now_.

_But we are so close to the end… why should be stay? Earth… why should we not go there?_ Her eyes lingered on the stars again. She did not know how far her mind-call reached. _We will find the coordinates and find Earth. We have no use here._

Nairyry stood, giving Chilfer, who had just popped out near her, her arm to land on and called her dragon from her swim.

Down the beach a queen fire lizard stirred, memories from the memories of her forbearer's human friends rose to the surface, awakened from their long sleep.

_Go to Earth…_

The memories as old as the settlement of Pern woke and were born anew. The queen fire lizard sent those to Chilfer.


	4. Together on the Beach

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Four: _Together on the Beach_

Nairyry slept fitfully, tossing and turning. Her dreams were disturbed, of strange places she never could have thought of on her own. The Hold, or Holds, were strange, enormous and wide-open. There were no fire lizards, dragons or even watch-whers. The buildings were huge, made of glass and metal and the same strange stone, cut unbelievably flat and squared.

Strange trees, much greener than any she had seen, sparsely lined some of the streets. Dead, tall, branchless trees had black lines strung between them. Most of this place was made of the same weird rock, or metal or glass or the new Aivas-retrieved 'plastic' material.

Then, in a large patch of green, she found peace in all the hustle and bustle of people and strange, moving things they seemed to ride in. This place, a forest it seemed was lovely. Unconsciously she looked around as if to imprint it in her mind as coordinates.

Her last hours of sleep were undisturbed as she continued to dream of the little green patch.

In fact, in the morning she still had the image of it firmly in her mind.

000

Thyrath rumbled happily as her rider spread oil on her itching hide. Nairyry grinned at her dragon and slapped the gold's thick hide affectionately. "At least I know there won't be more of you to oil ever again."

"Quite a good thing, too." She jumped and turned. "Sorry," added W'lam as he dropped to the beach's sand from the log he had been standing on. Jurcath must have landed far enough up the long low-tide beach, nearly in the Southern forests, from the queen dragon and her rider for Nairyry to not notice. The bronze was deep in the sand, blinking green and blue at them. She pulled a face and spread another handful of oil on Thyrath's neck, back near the shoulder.

"Sometimes I wish you were a green, you know," she told the dragon, and scratched the itch the queen directed her to. "It's not as if this world needs more dragons from your clutches."

"She looks splendid today, Nyr." W'lam bowed to the gold dragon and took some oil when the other rider offered the jar." They stopped to watch as several fire lizards, some bronzes, blue and browns but only one green, leapt into they sky. Nairyry's fire lizard looked and crooned as the green dove to the sea and landed on the shore with a fish in her talons. "What-" started Nairyry, then went stiff.

The wild green ate ferociously. In a sudden moment she flung her small frame into the sky and the males were after her. "A mating flight!" whispered Nairyry. She turned as swiftly as an earth cobra and glared at bronze Chilfer. "Don't you dare! Absolutely not!"

Her fire lizard looked back at the dwindling specks of his wild kin and hissed at his human, spreading his wings. Nairyry, desperate, dove at the bronze and grabbed him. She pinned his wings to his sides.

"No. No, no, no, no, no, _no_, _NO_. You are staying right _here_." When the fire lizards were out of sight she released him and stood. Though she didn't notice, she was dead white and breathing in a very controlled rhythm. W'lam looked at her in concern.

"It's only you and me here. And Chilfer is fast," she explained, eyes haunted, voice was ragged and hoarse. She looked away and leaned against her dragon's side. She had discussed in detail, all the while red as if she had been left to sit in a barrel of redwort for a sevenday, the process of a mating flight. Nairyry knew she would delay that as long as possible. All she could hope for was a decent bronze with a decent rider to catch her and her dragon.

"No. Not-" she shuddered, drawing a deep breath and sank to the sand, one hand still wrapped around as much of her dragon's leg as possible. "Not like that. Not Chilfer and a wild green."

Thyrath rumbled consolingly and twisted her head around to nuzzle her rider. W'lam continued to oil her dragon, having nothing to say that would comfort her. She was clearly terrified by the thought of Thyrath rising.

Nairyry started to get up, then fell against her gold's leg, a sob tearing from her throat. W'lam dropped the oil and came over to her. He put a hand on her shoulder consolingly, then held her in his arms and she let him hold her and rock her until she was cried out.

"I'm sorry," she whispered brokenly. "I just don't know the bronze riders well enough to let it _be_ wonderful. And if I can't, then…" She broke off, and looked up in his face.

"Was that what happened? When- when Jurcath caught the green?" she asked hesitantly.

He stiffened, then relaxed and held her slightly tighter to his chest as he remembered. "Yes. For me it was wonderful. But for Tai… it was her Zaranth's second flight. The rider whose dragon had first caught hers had been cruel, ruthless, even when she accepted him. She expected that, and resisted the next time. Jurcath and I… that day with couldn't see for the wonder of that green's flight."

W'lam shuddered and closed his eyes, a flash of sorrow and pain coming across his face. He looked down at Nairyry, still holding her to him. At the same moment they became painfully aware of how they sat, how much their bodies touched. She looked, startled and pulled away as if to preserve their dignity, but W'lam only resettled his arms around her to a more comfortable position, a strange look on his face as he held her to him.

"No," he whispered, his eyes now painful, hopeful and pleading. "No, stay. Stay- with me." He bent towards her.

Nairyry's eyes grew wide and she opened her mouth to say something. Before she could W'lam kissed her gently on her lower lip, lingering sweetly. She went stiff and pulled her head away, then pushed against his chest, forcing him back. The goldrider stood shakily and ran, stumbling, over to her dragon. She swiftly climbed Thyrath's shoulder and settled herself into the saddle. Nairyry urged her dragon to take her back to the weyr, not knowing there were tears running down her face.

Instead Thyrath rumbled and settled into the sand. "What are you doing?" she all but cried. The queen turned her head, eyes whirling blue and green, to look at W'lam, who stood, one hand on her large shoulder, reaching the other to the rider.

Thyrath twisted herself so that her rider was lower, near the Weyrsinger. "No!" sobbed Nairyry, closing her eyes and clenching her fists as she collapsed along her dragon's neck.

"Nyr." The Weyrsinger's voice was soft. "Please look at me, Nyr." He put a hand on her back and turned her face towards him with the other. Gazing into her eyes he saw in them, for the first time, fear.

Fear of him.

But more, there was longing and sorrow, and an old, old grief, buried deep long ago and dug up again now.

He reached up and gathered her in his arms and lowered her gently to the ground, though she held onto her dragon's saddle with one hand until he gently pried it loose. She went limp and all but cowered from him as he knelt beside her. Tears ran down her face from under her closed eyes.

"What happened, Nyr?" he asked her, gently laying his hand along her cheek. "What do you remember? It was long ago, wasn't it?" He lay back beside her, and gently slid one arm under her, and one arm over, encircling her. She curled in on herself, drawing her knees up. Her dragon settled, comfortable, and laid her head next to the two humans.

W'lam pulled the gold's rider closer to him, and let his body touch hers ever so slightly. She swallowed.

"It was before I came to the Harper Hall," she began softly, looking into the distance, in the sky above them. "I didn't have Chilfer yet. I lived with my family; we were at Ruatha then, before they moved South. I was exploring in the lower levels, and must have gotten dirty enough to pass for a drudge. A man found me down there." She stopped, a sob shaking her body for a minute before she could continue.

"He- he took me into an empty room. I didn't want to go with him but he said my mother wanted me to see it. He closed the door then turned on me. The man forced me down to the ground and-" she choked again. "He held me, just- just like you did, but not so gently." Her voice shook as she struggled to speak normally. "Then- then he pulled me to the ground and-" she stopped and took a calming breath. "I had eleven Turns."

Nairyry wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and looked into W'lam's eyes. "Is a mating flight any different at all?" she asked bitterly, pushing against him again, and glared at him. "Is _love_?" Now her voice cracked.

"Love is very different, Nyr," he told her softly, pulling her close, and pressed his lips to hers. This time she responded to him, timidly and uncertainly, but nonetheless she responded. When he tightened his hold on her, unconsciously turning sideways so he lay partially on top of her she gasped and struggled, trying to escape. Slowly he loosened his arms around her, looking into her eyes so she could see he understood.

He kissed her softly once more, feeling her trembling, and let her go. Nairyry sat up slowly, holding her knees to her chest, and looked down at the sand. Then she took a deep, shuddering breath and let it out slowly. W'lam sat up too, and held her again. She dried her eyes fully, then looked back at him. She hesitated a moment.

"Thank you," she whispered finally. "I- well, I sort of see now– I couldn't before, not clearly. I suppose I was frightened… but you aren't the only one who had to wait to express yourself." She smiled shakily at him. "I haven't been able to come out and say or do- anything. With you. He changed me, that man. I don't think I could have ever let you know even if I realized it myself. I mean– I sort of did, but I never really admitted it to myself…"

W'lam kissed her again. When she responded, he deepened the kiss, holding her to him. She hesitantly put her arms around his neck. When they slowly broke off for air she smiled hesitantly at her teacher, comrade and newly-found lover. The bronzerider brushed Nairyry's hair out of her face and cupped her cheek in his hand. She leaned into it, eyes closed, until he brushed his lips to hers. Once more nothing mattered, except that they were together.

When Jurcath rumbled, coming over to settle next to Thyrath, Nairyry suddenly stiffened and jerked away. W'lam looked at her, puzzled, as she closed her eyes and leaned against him. Then he knew what it was, why the dragons had upset her again.

"Her mating flight?" he asked with quiet certainty. She shivered, though the sun beat down on them, nodded and huddled together with him.

"Even if it is Jurcath, what of me? Of us?" she asked. "I just don't know what it will be like, really. I can't think-"

He silenced her with a brief kiss.

"If it is Jurcath who catches Thyrath… we'll just take things as they come," he whispered in her ear, and leaned her back to the sand for another kiss as she clung to him with all the strength of her desperate, painful hope.


	5. Promise

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Five: _Promise_

Nairyry didn't return to her weyr quickly. She flew direct, wanting some time in the high-altitude air to cool off. Everything had happened so fast, with W'lam, she reflected as they circled up, leaving the bronze rider on the beach to oil his own dragon. The little beach was a favored spot of theirs. Even now a green and her rider popped out of _between_ and glided down to land. Thyrath wafted her wings, bringing them higher.

Silence between the queen and her rider streached. The dragon seemed to sense that Nairyry wanted to think, to remember. Thoughts drifting freely, she remembered, in strange detail, the little green patch she had dreamt of. It seemed so sharp, so real, that she nearly considered giving her dragon that image as coordinates, and telling her to take them there.

And yet, strangest of all, she felt a surety that it was. That it was a memory. It called to her as no other place had, squeezing her heart. "Does it feel that way to you, dearest?" she asked Thyrath.

_It feels… old,_ the dragon mused. _Not aged, but far away in_ time. _But it does not call me._

"One day we'll try to go there, maybe. Just to see what its like," she told her dragon as they banked, curding away from the ocean. "There are no living things there, no dragons…"

She trailed off, then gave the image of the weyr. It was time to return.

000

That night she again dreamt of the strange buildings and then the green place. Once again it was abnormally clear and real, and she was still thinking about it when she went to breakfast.

She sat beside W'lam with a hesitant smile, and he grinned back up at her as she settled with her food and morning klah. Since she was left-handed and he right they linked the arms they used less and ate that way. After breakfast he took her hand and she followed him into a discrete passageway. He took her in his arms when they were inside bent her back slightly in a kiss that would not have been out of place in a romantic Harper's song.

When he pulled her up again, both panting slightly, he grinned at her almost self-consciously. "I- I had to be sure it wasn't just a heat-vision," he explained. She kissed him and put her arms around his neck.

"Oh!" They jumped as took their lips away from each other's. W'lam kept his arm around Nairyry's waist and she on his back, hand on the opposite shoulder. The speaker was a wide-eyes young woman, a greenrider by her shoulder knots. She had one hand on her mouth, partially concealing her embarrassed, amused grin, and carried a fire lizard with a bandaged side in the crook of her other arm. It looked as though she had just come from re-bandaging her little blue's wound.

"I'm sorry, Weyrsinger, Queenrider! Excuse me…" She hastily picked up a small pot of numbweed from the ground, and dashed around the lovers, quickly making off despite her half-asleep blue's loud, echoing protests.

W'lam sighed and watched the pair disappear around the bend. "Roencally. We'll be all over the Weyr in three days."

"A whole three days?" asked Nairyry dryly, though her eyes twinkled. "I was thinking by about noon today."

They grinned at each other and kissed again briefly. "Could we maybe go over that measure again? I want to make sure I got the timing right," the goldrider suggested, and W'lam smiled at the pun on music.

"Absolutely. And remember, hold the notes a long rime…"

They returned to the beach to swim, bringing meatrolls and thermoses of klah with them for lunch, and spent the day lazing on the sand or jumping in the water when the sun got to unbearable.

"You know, I'm really glad that I'm not a Senior Weyrwoman," commented Nairyry with a lazy yawn as she snuggled closer to W'lam on their blankeet. She absently checked the towel with one hand, reassuring herself that it was wrapped securely.

He encouraged her to go on. "Well, if I was then, point a; I would have to be buisy, and not able to be just lazing away out here with you. Point b; I would have to deal with extraordinarily important folk, which you know is not a suitable occupation for someone like me. C…" she trailed off, not wanting to share point c.

"Thyrath would be the senior queen and have flown to mate," the bronze rider finished softly, and pulled her close, kissing her forehead. "It can't truly be as bad as all that, can it? Well, perhaps it can," he amended when she started to make a reply, "but I promise– I _promise_, Nyr,– that I will not let a dragon besides Jurcath fly Thyrath. And with me at least I can be sure there will be only joy, not pain."

He kissed her again to seal the promise, then let her go. He knew it was going to be difficult, but he would promise that.

"Promise?" she asked, voice very small.

"I promise, Nyr. No one will abuse you. It will be wonderful, not terrible. I Promise that to you." W'lam bent his head and kissed her again.

As the sun sank lower in the evening sky they packed and prepared to leave. They unloaded their gear and met on prearranged terms at their dinner table. The riders they sat close to looked at hem, then either winked, grinned openly or lsecretly or, in the case of one or two bronze riders, frowned.

"What did I tell you?" teased Nairyry, seeing a blue rider barely managing to turn a laugh into a couch on his soup. "We're not together two days and already we're getting publicity."

W'lam grinned and nodded to a disgruntled bronze rider. He made a little bit of a show, of assisting Nairyry, who played along, to her feet, then gave her an obvious, romantic, backward bent kiss. Several riders at their table chuckled or clapped, someone whistled and another let out an amused whoop.

They laughed, then grinned and nodded good naturedly at them and quickly ditched their trays and raced out of the cavern, hand in hand.

000

W'lam came by the next morning, just after she had woken and dressed, and brought music. Nairyry noted the third instrument needed and grinned at him after a hiss. "Who's playing with us this time? Lessa herself?"

"Moreta," he responded with a smile. "Actually, the second harp is optional. You can be flute this time, and I'll be the first harp. I'm going to try to find someone who'll play the second harp, but for now we'll just do a duet."

"You really like harps," she noted, taking the music from him. He grinned and strummed his small instrument. She took out her flute from its small case on her shelf, a lovely one crafted from hard wood and carved lightly, not very deep in the wood, with flowers and trailing vines. The cuts were lighter against the dark brown finish of the surface. It may have been apprentice-made, but that made no difference to her.

She carefully blew a soft low scale and turned to the music. By now she was nearly as good as W''lam and they simply started right into the music. A note intruded on their song halfway through the first measure. They stopped, frowning, and it came again. It was the sound of a dragon growling.

Two bronze riders burst into the room, eyes feverish, and stood close to Nairyry, who backed away, frowning, clutching her flute. "My Skirath is blooding his kill!" cried one rider, hardly recognizable as M'ler in the roused rider.

"Plooth too," the other said. Nairyry failed to grasp the significance of that for a moment, until F'gap burst into the room, unlacing his shirt to declare that his bronze Dumpith was also blooding.

"No!" she cried suddenly, and raced for her dragon's weyr as fast as lightning, W'lam right behind her and, stumbled to a halt just in time to see the queen launch herself to the Feeding Grounds. A half-strangled sob tore from the rider's throat and she dashed to where she had last seen her dragon. As the glowing, golden dragon fell on her meal the bronze riders closed in a circle around the queenrider.

W'lam shoved two of them aside to hold Nairyry's hands. "Go with her Nairyry, lady rider of Thyrath!" he told her. "Go with her. It is safe."

She looked at him in confusion, half in rider-trance. "How can I keep from doing that?" she gasped, and her eyes filled with tears.

"I made you a promise, Queenrider," he said, voice quiet but intensely fierce. "And I will keep it.

She shuddered, taking a deep breath, and stood tall looking around at the circle of bronze riders. "You may as well all leave. Only Jurcath will catch Thyrath. No other, if I have to rider _hierbetween_ this flight!" They didn't hear, but it was enough for her to say it.

Nairyry stepped in W'lam's arms and they both closed their eyes, seeking their dragons.

"I _promised_, Nyr."

000

Thyrath roared, challenging the puny bronze ones. She leapt into the sky and the sixteen bronzes followed her within seconds. First one fell, then another. She delighted at seeing them panting, struggling to keep up. As she soared and flipped throught the air she somehow felt lighter than ever before without the restraint of bearing people on her back she had to be wary of.

Later she climbed as high as possible then looked down, seeing the remaining four bronze ones, Thyrath dove right on to them, and cried out again as one dropped, and a second faltered far enough behind never to make up for his time. Then the other two were beside her. They were large and strong, perhaps worthy of her. Jurcath, the one who had fallen behind, suddenly appeared under her and tangled their claws. He dragged her down, and then heaved with his wings.

Thyrath cried out as he twined his neck with hers.

000

Gently W'lam kissed Nairyry. She was with Thyrath now, and he was with Jurcath, though he retained enough human thought to know not to allow himself to become Jurcath to the point of loosing how gentle he needed to be with this queenrider.

Slowly, carefully, he brought her to the sleeping room and gently they sank to the bed as the other bronze riders stumbled dazedly from the room. He held her in his arms, waiting…

She cried out and clung to him, and then they were together, dragon to dragon, body to body.


	6. W'lam

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Six: _W'lam_

Nairyry stirred, frowning slightly, nearly awake. She opened her eyes and pushed herself up on ones arm. Then she closed her eyes again tightly and sank back in the bed, remembering. When she felt a hand on her cheek she looked up. It was W'lam, dressed and kneeling beside the bed. She gave a trembling little smile, blinking back tears.

"You… all right?" he asked uncertainly, worry evident in his eyes. She nodded, then lowered her eyes, pulling her legs up to her chest. He brushed the hair away from her face and kissed her lightly. Before he had eve tucked the blankets around her she was asleep and smiling lightly.

000

Thyrath and Jurcath returned while she slept. The queen was in her weyr when Nairyry woke again, washed, dressed and went to find whatever was left from dinner, now long past. W'lam was there, talking with a blue rider animatedly, gesturing with a meatroll as the older man finished a bowl of soup.

When she entered he leapt to his feet and came towards her, concern still on his face. She drew herself up when he started to give her his arm. "I am quite well, thank you very much, and I will not fall over in the first hard breeze to come my way," she informed him tartly.

When he frowned, a little hurt, she smiled to take the sting out of her words. "Really, I am all right," she told him, in a more gentle tone.

"You- you're sure?" he asked, wavering.

"Quite. I'll join you in a minute," she said firmly. She gathered her own bowl of soup and a hunk of bread and sat down with the men. They talked but she concentrated only on eating. W'lam and the blue rider, by the name of L'fej, were trying to come to an agreement about the length of time flying between some beach who knew where and another beach elsewhere.

Full, she pushed her bowl back and waited until L'fej left. W'lam bit his lip and turned to her. "You're sure you're all right? _We_'re all right?"

She smiled at him and took his hand in hers and kissed him once. "Absolutely."

That night she once more dreamed incredibly vividly of the green patch.

Nairyry changed into a light swimming wrap around skirt and a light shirt then woke Thyrath and settled the flying harness on her. "I want a swim. Will you see if Jurcath and W'lam are up for it?" She had been practicing her music on her own in her weyr all that morning. The gold dragon rumbled, cocked her head and her eyes whirled green and blue.

_They will join us._ With that the queenrider vaulted to Thyrath's neck and they were off.

W'lam appeared on Jurcath beside them as they came out of between to the beach they had first discovered their mutual feelings at. _Jurcath says that W'lam says that we should just drop off your things on the sand and dive right in. I think I would be fun for us to dive from so far up._

_Tell him that's a wonderful idea. Go close to the ground so my things wont be hared when I let them off_. They did so, the riders also managing to get their dragon's flying gear off, then the great creatures beat their wings hard, spiraling up a dragonlength above the water. Nairyry and W'lam stood, steadying themselves on the dragon's neck ridges against the wind, then looked at each other and dove.

The queen and bronze followed, angling their wings to not hinder them in flight, then hit the water just after their riders and went deep enough to catch the humans on their necks and bring them to the surface. Nairyry spluttered, laughing and dripping, and pushed her hair out of her face. "That was wonderful!" she cried, not to anyone in particular but the other three heard. Firelady, Chilfer, Seaspray and Icy appeared and splashed happily around the queen dragon's head.

W'lam swam over and she slid off the water-soaked golden hide into his arms. She didn't really need the help, but it was a new and likable experience, being treaded as if she was a delicate flower. Not that she was, but it was nice not to have to show a hard, independent exterior and play the week damsel in need of assistance sometimes.

Nairyry took a deep breath and flipped herself over in the water, diving deep. She felt her way along Thyrath's side, knowing W'lam was following, then repelled herself up when she found the queen's foot. She broke the surcace, gasping, with the bronserider a second behind her. She giggled like a girl and held onto her dragon's outstretched wing, resting. Thyrath turned her neck so she could put her head next to the humans, the impact causing the water to ripple past them. Jurcath joined them and each rider clung to their dragon's muzzle.

After a time the humans waded out, but their friends, fire lizards and dragons alike, soaked in the warm shallows. W'lam and Nairyry spread ont blankets on the sand again and basked in the sun.

After a minute the bronze rider rolled, half pinning the gold rider's body under his, and kissed her. She stiffened, then relaxed, letting him pull her arms playfully up and push her shirt away from her stomach. When she put her hands under his shirt and up his back he pulled away slightly, looking into her eyes. "I was only- I didn't mean-" he swallowed and bit his lip. "I wouldn't, not without…"

Nairyry stroked his cheek, a slight smile on her face. "I think I'm ready, W'lam," she said softly.

000

W'lam shifted to one side of her and took her face in his hands and she opened her eyes. She smiled weakly, almost shyly, up t him and licked her dry lips.

"That- that was…" she trailed off, blushed and looked down. He lowered her head to the blanket again and she closed her eyes. He kissed her again, lightly, and she responded weakly.

"But I- I didn't- _hurt_ you, at all, did I?" he asked.

"Just a little… strained." She smiled at him, still with her eyes closed, and again she blushed. Nairyry turned her head up, opening her eyes and caressed his cheek. "Thank you, again," she said softly, and tried to sit up, but fell back with a gasp, some beads of sweat standing out on her face.

"Nyr?" he asked, still terrified she might be hurting because of him.

"Just a little strained, like I said."

"It might be better to rest a while then," he suggested.

Nairyry nodded, smiled at him one last time and relaxed, nearly dozing already. W'lam stayed motionless a long time, gazing at the gold rider in awe. She had consented to be his, this wonderful, glorious beauty. His heart beat faster, and he smiled tenderly own at her. He leaned down and kissed her. Though asleep her lips twitched in response.

W'lam reluctantly left the blankets, leaving her modestly covered, and went to wash himself again.

Still asleep, Nairyry smiled as she dreamt of the little patch of green.

000

The dragons and their riders soon were airborne again, ready to go back to the Weyr now the sun was well on its way down the sky. Nairyry was still sleepy, remembering the Green Place, as she called it. Thyrath rumbled and she shook her head, looking over the two dragons' wings to W'lam, who returned her smile.

She gave her dragon the first coordinates she thought of, being not quite alert yet. And as she disappeared _between_ with Thyrath, that was the last W'lam –anyone on Pern– saw of the queen dragon Thyrath and her rider Nairyry of Nais Weyr for some time.


	7. Questions & Songs & The Question Song

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Seven: _Questions and Songs and The Question Song_

The trip _between_ was long, and she was glad she had taken a deep breath of air before. It was still cold and black after she had counted to ten. She frantically reviewed the image she had given Thyrath and was horrified to find what it was: the little Green Patch she had dreamt of.

_I am here! Do not worry, we are going- it will be long, but we are together. Stay with me. Do not go, Nairyry!_ The queen dragon kept up a steady flow of encouragement and entreaties to stay. She forced herself to stay awake, to hold the breath.

But at last she faded.

Later, she recalled thinking vaguely that perhaps Lessa and Ramoth must have not taken the crucial breath when they jumped between four hundred turns. Later her queen told her that she lost consciousness from lack of oxygen very near the end. Later she would wonder how, in going back an unknown but vast period of time, she had not had the severe ill affects that Lessa and Ramoth had sustained in their mere –mere?– four hundred Turn jump.

She did not know how long she was between with Thyrath, but it was long, so long.

000

Eventually she heard her dragon again. Nairyry was slumped, gasping, only now conscious, over the great queen's neck.

_You wake! you wake! you wake! you wake! You live again!_ Her dragon's repetition was the first thing she heard.

_I- I'm fine now, Dearest. Just… woozy._ Like I had a full bottle of Bended white on one go and just woke up from the hangover, she thought. _But I'm really fine, now._

Thyrath rumbled under her and she opened her eyes, to see one of the dragon's whirling slowly with the yellow of alarm fading and blues and greens becoming more prominent. Nairyry smiled weakly at her dragon and gave the eye ridges a soothing rub, causing the gold to lower her innermost eyelid in pleasure and contentment.

Then she looked around.

Trees everywhere and a bit of apparently early evening sky with a few stars above. Apparently, from the trees jarred around them, Thyrath had made a crash landing in this new world. A new world… She whispered it to her self, gazing around in awe. Everything was greener, too, rather than the blue-green of Pern.

_Do you think… it is Earth?_ she asked her dragon, not knowing the name of any other world besides her own dear Pern.

_I do not know, but it is not my home. I am not… not_ right _here; I feel I don't belong… _Thyrath sounded unsure, shaken.

Nairyry frowned. Her dragon might not belong, being a descendant of a creature bioengineered from a creature native to Pern, but she felt oddly… she was home. Her blood sang in her ears, calling out the connection to this place. How strange, she mused, looking around again.

Then Thyrath stumbled and fell on her side, jolting her rider about in the saddle. "_Thyrath!_" she cried with mind and voice, and freed herself from the straps in a panic. Nairyry raced to her dragon's head, only distantly aware of being heavier than normal on this world as she stumbled, and put one hand on the muzzle.

_What's wrong? Are you hurt?_ The queen shifted her head briefly, then closed all but her last eyelid in pain.

_My wing_… she said, and her thought was as red with pain as her eyes. Nairyry got up and dashed to her other side. In her dragon's wing joint was a forked stick, as thick as her finger and twice its length with another finger length of each prong sticking through the major joint.

Her rider hesitated then pulled out her belt knife and, working carefully around the green ichor, wing finger bones and arm bone, muscle, wing membrane and hide, cut off the prongs, then yanked out the twig. Thyrath let out a short, half-muffled bellow, then growled.

The queen attempted to unbend her wing, then let it go. _It will take time to heal,_ Nairyry told her with concern as she started bandaging it with strips cut from her flying jacket.

_And I cannot fly until it does_, confirmed Thyrath. Then she lowered her head, having turned it to see the operation, closed her eyes and fell into an uneasy sleep.

Nairyry looked on helplessly without medicinal supplies, then finished bandaging the great gold wing, working slowly and with a heavy heart, keeping panic at bay.

Her dragon could not go _between_ from the ground or with an open wound, and she could not fly until her wing was healed. They were stranded on a strange world in a strange time without any way to get home again.

Eventually Nairyry curled up in the curve of her dragon's neck and stargazed. She wanted to see W'lam again, to practice music in her weyr with him again. She wanted to fly with Thyrath above the skies again and to swim in the warm Southern waters again.

As she looked up at the sky, so different and so similar to Pern's sky, a tear trickled down her face. Then she drew out her flute and began to play a low, soft tune on it.

That was when she heard the answers from the trees.

000

Jessica Palmer heard the bellow and then crash first, as if someone had just dropped a house on the Wicked Witch of the West in the middle of Central Park, New York. She was walking home from flute lessons… or, rather, her attempts to create something on a flute that would be passable as music. Again the seventeen-year-old wondered why she had ever thought it would be a good idea.

When she heard the crash the first thing she did was jump –it had been just off the path where she was– and drop the case she had been holding, containing her flute. Jess picked up the case, eyes still cautiously in the general direction the crash had come from. A shuffling and an anxious _crooning_.

She frowned, then carefully, quietly stepped off the path and made her way into the woods, unconsciously clutching her flute case. Jess knelt beside a tree, toppled over by a great force. Carefully she raised her head over it.

In the twilight she blinked, trying to resolve what she saw into something she could get her mind around. But the image stayed the same. She shook her head, braided copper-dyed hair flapping against darkly tanned skin, but it did not change.

A huge golden– _dragon_ (there was no getting around it: a dragon in Central Park) with hide of dull gold rather than scales, crouched in a tangle of knocked-about trees and under brush. On her lower neck an unconscious form slumped, sun-streaked brown hair tumbling over a face.

The form stirred and pushed the hair from its face. A young woman, she was, Jessica saw. Why, except for her at least six-foot-tall frame, her dragon and the clothing she wore (as far as Jessica could tell a tan leather jacket, pants made of some soft material of light blue and dark brown boots not out of place in a rodeo show) she would not have been strange to find in a grocery store.

The woman seemed confused and a little frightened. She smiled shakily at the dragon and gave the gold creature a rub on the ridges over its eyes. Jessica watched her look around, and saw her smile slightly at the stars, which she seemed to find slightly calming.

She frowned, though it was hard to tell in the dim light. And then her dragon stumbled, falling closer to Jessica's hiding place. "Thyrath!" she called, or something like that that. The dragon's eyes were red and –holy crap!– they were whirling, moving! Jessica saw the young woman get out of the belt buckles or whatever was rigged up there and go over to the dragon's head, pause, then turn to the wing.

Apparently previously unnoticed by either of them a forked stick was jammed through the point where all the wing-fingers jointed together. With a morbid fascination but trying to look away and filled with pity, Jessica watched as the dragonrider cut the twig, glanced at her great beast and pulled it out, releasing a half-swallowed bellow and then a growl from the golden beast. The green ooze was disgusting to watch and Jess was glad that the woman took off her leather jacket, showing a lavender shirt of light cloth, and cut strips from it to bandage the wing wound.

The dragon lowered her head to the ground, closed her eyes and apparently went to sleep. Her human friend (rider, for lack of a word that better explained her sitting in a saddle-type thing on the dragon's neck) finished bandaging quickly. She gazed at her golden beauty for a long moment. If they had been facing the right way Jess could have seen her expression, so close they were. In fact, if she had taken two steps out of hiding towards them she would have been able to touch the dragon herself. The idea was tempting.

With a light sigh, worry creasing her face, the dragonrider went and curled up in the curve of her dragon's neck and looked up to the stars. After a little while, just when Jess thought she could slip away unnoticed, she shifted, bringing out- a _flute_!

She put it to her lips and blew, playing a hunting, sad tune more melancholy than any Jessica had ever heard.

Jessica put her own instrument to her lips and quietly began playing a separate tune, easy, one she made up as she went along, but always following slightly behind the notes lead by the first flutist. That was the way she always was best; she just couldn't follow the music someone else had made up.

She was startled to find that a third person in the strange song was singing, not words but sounds, like a clear note from a crystal class or a light glass bell. It put her in mind of the elf-singing from the Lord of the Rings movies she had seen.

000

For a second Nairyry stopped playing in astonishment, and when the other two falteringly continued she realized they had been weaving their songs to hers and she slid forward to her knees and continued, turning her aimless piping into the tune to Lessa's Question Song.

When the song came to an end she lowered the flute and waited, looking between the directions of other flutist and of the not-quite-singer.


	8. Earth

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

_Note_: The New York in this story is totally my own creation, including my version of Central Park, so likely none of it will be familiar except the Empire State Building.

Chapter Eight: _Earth_

Tristan Charleston, though not the best public singer could create a lovely, pure tone if he put his mind to it. He joined in with the flute-playing dragonrider, not singing in words but in pure sound, half-syllables and just simple notes. When the trio finished their haunting, lonely song and the woman put her flute down on her lap to glance back and forth between his hiding place and what he assumed was the second flutist's hiding spot he didn't immediately reveal himself. He was quite aware that one snap from the creature he thought could only be a real dragon would end his life.

But the youngish woman –she had to be less than twenty and very tall– waited patiently, not speaking, motionless. Tristan had no such ability to stay still. His leg cramped and he shifted, rustling some leaves under him. The dragonrider , (for that must be what she was if the creature was as she seemed a dragon) turned to face his hiding place. In the growing moonlight and fading twilight he could see she was very lovely. She sat, only sat. After a moment he stood up, brushed a leaf from his hair and, with a mental shrug, stepped out from behind his bush.

The dragonrider frowned slightly, cocking her head to the side a little, and held her flute tighter. He knew what she likely was thinking: his clear pitch was crazy for a boy. It had often been remarked upon in high school.

Then the hidden flutist came out, clutching her instrument in both hands. They all stared at each other.

000

Jessica glanced at the boy; he seemed normal enough, and she dismissed him as someone who had simply stumbled on the dragon and rider as she had. But the dragon…

Now that was one impressive creature! He eyes opened, and she raised her head– looking right at the newcomers, who hastily retreated. The golden creature's rider stood with one unknown word, holding out her hand in a gesture of entreaty. They froze, looking between her and her dragon. She was frowning slightly, as if unsure of what they were doing. And the dragonrider towered over Jessica and the boy. After a moment Jess stepped forward again and gave a little cough.

"Hello," she said. She felt it would be good to be formal and 'hi' or 'hey' just didn't quite seem right. It wasn't often a golden dragon and rider made a crash landing in the middle of Central Park.

"Greetings." They both paused, unsure. "I am Nairyry, rider of Thyrath." An image of the rider came into her head, along with one word: Nairyry. To that came a picture of the golden dragon, and the word Thyrath, the name Nairyry had called out earlier. A questioning thought followed, then nothing. She exchanged frightened looks with the boy. Now she rubbed the dragon's eye ridge again, smiling affectionately at the huge creature.

"Oh… um, I'm Tristan…"

"Jessica, or Jess."

The dragonrider smiled,. "Thank you. Um…" She paused looking around. "Where exactly are we? I think it is not Pern, for there are no dragons that Thyrath or I can sense and you do not seem familiar with her kind, but perhaps they have their Weyrs elsewhere? Another continent, perhaps?"

The two exchanged glances. "It's New York. We're in Central Park, right now, but bigger than that, America or the United States, and Earth-"

"Earth?" That seemed to startle her. "So my dream was a memory…" This last she said more to herself. Her dragon rumbled discontentedly. Tristan looked over at Jess and raised his eye brows, then jerked his head slightly at the dragonrider they now knew as Nairyry and golden Thyrath.

"What's the betting the FBI, the CIA and Animal Control all show up within the next ten minutes?" he asked dryly.

She glared at him. "Oh, that's nice," she retorted, then looked back at the dragonrider. Jess crossed her eyes, stuck out her tongue and jabbed her thumb at Tristan. Nairyry smiled laughingly and a small giggle popped out before she schooled her expression again, though her eyes still twinkled.

"Whad'ya know. An… _out-of-towner_ with a very _in-town_ sense of humor," she said to herself. When the dragon lifted her head to nudge her rider she caught her breath in her chest. The dragon extended her head, but when they both stepped back hastily she withdrew it on her long neck.

Nairyry frowned again, and put one hand on Thyrath's cheek. She extended one hand to the younger people and beckoned them closer. "Come! They do not harm humans." The gold dragon rumbled again when they looked at each other and shifted her body. They stepped a little closer, and Nairyry turned to say something to her dragon again. Thyrath snorted. Nairyry came over to them and gently gave each a little nudge towards the dragon, who blinked gently at Jess and Tristan. The dragonrider again put her hand on the queen's huge cheek and motioned for them to do the same.

Hesitantly Jess ran a hand over Thyrath's nose, and Tristan did the same. Reverently they stroked the dragon, who closed one of those multiple eyelids in pleasure. Nairyry took Jess's hand and placed it on the eye ridge, showing how her dragon liked to be rubbed there. Jess grinned at her, loosing some of her shyness already, and the dragonrider grinned back.

"You know, they can't exactly chill here forever, you know," remarked Tristan a little later as he gave Thyrath a last pat and stood back. "For one, think of how much this lady must eat on her own. And another; what are people going to say when they find them? They will eventually, you know. They aren't that far off the path."

Jess frowned. "You're right. Maybe… I know this place, but it's kinda hard to get to." Thyrath rumbled and shifted so she could look Jess directly in the eyes. She could see herself reflected in the many facets. Instinctively she closed her eyes and thought of the place, the large, warm beach, the enclosing cliffs from some quarry there a long time ago…

Thyrath rumbled again and she opened her eyes.

"Yeah, I think that'd be good for now, until her wing's healed," she told Tristan thoughtfully, and he shrugged. "But what about Nairyry?" The dragonrider looked up at the sound of her name and smiled at them from where she had been leaning, eyes closed, against Thyrath's shoulder. Her stomach rumbled rather audibly, and she winced, then grimaced, then closed her eyes again, face serenely melancholy.

Jess shrugged and smiled a little sadly. "My dad'll hardly notice. I'll bring her home and feed her up. She looks like she could use it. Hey, Nairyry! Do you want to come with me for a while?"

She looked a little startled, but after a moment of apparent consultation with Thyrath nodded. "I suppose I must rely upon others' generosity for now." She grimaced slightly. "It is not something Southern riders are used to." The explanation confused them more.

Jess arranged a meeting there in the morning, then took Nairyry's forearm, and the pair left with a last farewell to the gold dragon. At last only Thyrath and Tristan were left in the clearing.

She raised her head to gaze at the stars, closed all but her last eye lid and them slowly lowered the last and set her head on the ground. The moonlight and starlight shimmered over her golden hide as she lay, mostly ignoring the boy as he just watched her.

Thyrath really was an impressive creature. No, he decided, the Animal Control would not come for her. She was no animal. Not human, certainly, but very different from an animal. It must have been her who had spoken to him. Tristan looked once more at the huge and yet graceful golden beauty, then retrieved his backpack and left.

He had planed to watch a new movie his mother had given him, something about an evil dragon that ran around killing people and then tried to destroy the world (honestly, couldn't bad guys come up with something besides destroying the world or ruling the world all the time?!) but just didn't feel in the mood to hear about evil dragons after the perfectly nice one he'd just met.

Then Tristan stopped and smiled, then grinned. Finally he burst out into laughter. He finally got himself under control and strode home with only a slight chuckle at the absurdity of his evening.

He was unaware that Thyrath opened her eyes as he left, regarding him thoughtfully. Then she made a contented noise, nodded to herself, and fell asleep fully.


	9. New York City

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Nine: _New York City_

Nairyry walked with Jess, who was silent as she picked out a path no one would be following that late at night. The younger woman saw no real reason to keep people from seeing the dragonrider except for her garments. They were odd enough to attract unwanted attention, especially as they left a good portion of her showing. The pants were fine, but her shirt would not have been far out of place in a Luau on the Hawaiian Islands.

She seemed dressed for the Islands too, not for a climate like New York's night, even this early in Autumn. Jess picked out the most concealed route she could find to her house. Well did she know there were people out here whose business might not be so honest as hers. Finally they came out of Central Park. Across the street was the condominium where she lived with her father and an assorted half-tame flock of pigeons she fed out of her window.

Nairyry was hiding a fear of the street and the noisy creatures or machines that ran past on it. Jess took her had, making it look to passers by that she was taking the hand of an older relative, and waited until the signal to walk came on. Only the too-tight grip on her fingers betrayed the dragonrider's fear as they crossed the street. Jess flexed her hand and Nairyry let go. With a sympathetic smile Jess led her to the door and pulled it open, gesturing for her friend to proceed her.

The green carpet with blue and red flowers was familiar to her, at least, if not Nairyry, as was the cream paint of the walls and ceiling, the brass doors of the elevator and the door to the stairs. She led the way to the elevator and pressed the button. Familiar, faintly heard whirrings met her ears but she heard them anew as Nairyry must, frightening noises doing who knew what. Jess felt another jolt of respect at the calm and unafraid air that the dragonrider was showing, though her hands were clasping her pant legs tightly and her jaw was tight.

Finally the lift arrived and she stepped in, smiling encouragingly at Nairyry, "We're going to go up now," she explained, gesturing to the ceiling as the doors closed in front of them. She pressed her level button, 14, and they started upward. Her friend grabbed her arm in one hand and the railing in the other. "It's okay," Jess explained. She gave Nairyry's hand a little reassuring pat. "We're okay."

000

It was not the same as flying a dragon, Nairyry thought. Glad W'lam can't see me now, scared as a wherry. "W'lam," she whispered to herself, closing her eyes and unconsciously taking her hand from Jess's arm and touching her belly. Vaguely she wondered if she was- no.

"W'lam?" the girl asked, tilting her head to one side, and Nairyry opened her eyes, looking down at her with a bittersweet smile. She looked away and down, hair falling forward to hid her face slightly.

"W'lam?" Jess asked gently, leaning forward to see the dragonrider's face. She glanced at her, eyes a little wet, and away with a faint tinge of pink staining her cheeks.

Seen _that_ look before, Jess thought to herself, trying not to giggle and smirk. It was the same unmistakable look that her older friend had worn when she thought of the man she had married two years later, when Jess had been only ten. She's in love, and I think W'lam must be his name.

The elevator finally ground to a jolting stop, and Nairyry tensed. Then the doors opened and they stepped out with relief. She cautiously looked around the strange place, then followed Jess as she turned left. At number 149 she stopped, took a small ring of strange metal things that could only be keys from her coat pocket, selected the right one and opened the door with it.

Inside Jess shed her coat and set her ring of keys on a hook in the wall, then looked around cautiously and motioned for Nairyry to follow her and be quiet. She led the dragonrider to the second door on the right and gestured her to go inside. A bed in one corner had been made hastily, but the dresser, desk and chair, window seat and floor were all clear.

Nairyry looked around with interest. Jessica got her attention and motioned for her to stay here. She left, shutting the door behind her.

"Dad? You here?" There was no answer, so she looked into the bedroom. He wasn't there, nor in the kitchen. After satisfying herself that he was gone she bolted the door and went to let the dragonrider out of her bedroom. Nairyry was sitting on the bed, turned away from the door, apparently studying her hands on the blanket. Her head was turned in such a way that Jess couldn't see her face.

The girl started to come over to her quietly, then stopped as she saw that her new friend's shoulders shook ever so slightly. Jess hesitated, unsure. Nairyry took a calming breath and wiped her face with the back of her hand and turned, folding her hands in her lap, and stared down at them. Out of the corner of her eyes she must have seen Jess shift position uncomfortably for she swung her head around to look at the teenager. "W'lam," she said, apparently in explanation, for she smiled in an apologetic way and looked down again.

Jessica bit her lip then came to sit beside her. When she gingerly put her hand on the dragonrider's shoulder she placed her own hand over it in silent gratitude. And again almost unconsciously her free hand drifted to touch her belly and the settle in her lap again.

What was wrong with her stomach? Jess wondered, and remembered she was in love.

Pregnant?

By the man she called by W'lam?

She couldn't be! She was too young to have… anyway, she seemed too young for anything beyond kissing! But was she? Really, did the teenager even know how old her new friend was? Besides a dragonrider… what did she know she was?

Jess looked at Nairyry's face, the closed eyes, the tightened lips, the sorrow and regret and homesickness written all over it.

Nairyry remembered W'lam and Jurcath, and all that the four of them, with Thyrath, had shared. Especially she and W'lam. What they had shared together only that day –really that short of a time ago?– and how quickly they had come together. Now she had to wait until her dragon could fly. How long? How badly was she injured? And, when she flew again, could they bring themselves to face that long dark again?

With a deep breath she opened her eyes and smiled at Jess, reassuring the anxious teenager. "W'lam is a rider I know. He's… ."

Jess nodded understandingly and gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder, then slid to the floor, taking the dragonrider's hand and jerking her head at the doorway. She sat her new friend down at the kitchen table and rummaged in the cupboards and fridge until she had a plate of apples, cheese and crackers and a cup of milk. Then she added a couple of packets of Ritz Bitz Peanut Butter while Nairyry watched her curiously.

Placing the food in front of Nairyry she gestured with a smile for her to go ahead and eat. She took out some left over pizza and popped it in the microwave, then turned to find that the dragonrider was holding up a cracker and looking at it as if she had never seen it before. Jess grinned as she realized that this was actually likely the truth, and showed her how to put cheese on both apples and crackers and then eat it.

At the beep when the pizza was ready Nairyry leapt from her seat and put her hand to her belt, where Jess saw she had a knife in a concealed sheath. With an amused grin, though she was a little startled at the appearance of a weapon, Jess told her that it was just the food that was now hot. She put two slices on each plate and passed one to Nairyry, then grabbed a second cup of milk for herself, her own pizza and a couple of napkins for them.

After noting that her friend was just as perplexed by the cheese pizza as by the crackers and cheese she tried to hide her sympathetic, amused smile and picked up a slice, indicating that Nairyry should copy her. When they both polished it all off and took a last gulp, finishing their milk, Jess cleared the table and reached up into another cupboard, taking out some Oreos and passing three to Nairyry and taking three herself.

With a frown she remembered something she had forgotten. "Um… just how old are you, Nairyry?"

"Twenty-one," the dragonrider said, smiling crookedly. "Much older than I look, right?"

"Twenty-one?" the teenager exclaimed, startled, and sat back in her chair, thinking, maybe she's not too young to be pregnant. Her own mother had been about twenty-three or so when she had her. "Um… W'lam…" Jess trailed off. How to ask someone who didn't know the lingo politely if she was pregnant? She colored slightly, then burst out in a rush, "Are you in love with W'lam?"

Nairyry's eyes widened. Then her expression changed to thoughtfulness as she looked at Jess. After a moment she nodded in a half embarrassed sort of way.

"You… I mean, are you- do you have his baby?"

"Maybe, but it's- it's really to soon to tell." She half shrugged, giving the impression that she wasn't sure, and blushed, looking down at the table. "Thyrath… she's also carrying Jurcath's eggs. Jurcath is W'lam's bronze dragon." Jess stored that information away and saw that now both of them were blushing heavily.

So faintly that she knew she was not meant to hear, Jess caught Nairyry's murmur as she looked away. "Oh, W'lam…"


	10. Downtown Day

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Ten: _Downtown Day_

The next morning Nairyry woke slowly, then opened her eyes and looked around. She was lying in a strange bed. For a moment she didn't realize where she was, but at the sight of her bedding it all came back. After they had eaten Jess had told her that it would be best if her father didn't know she was there, and made up a comfortable bed in her closet.

A dress brushed her face and she waved it away. She stood up between the clothes and cautiously pushed the door open, listening hard. From the direction of the kitchen she heard two people, what sounded like Jess and a man talking. Her father, likely. After a moment she heard the door close and quietly went to the door and looked outside of it, then, still feeling unsure in this new world, came into the kitchen. Jess was sitting at the table, staring into a mug of something. She was clearly just awake. Nairyry glanced at the window, finding that it was still early morning.

"Good morning," she greeted the teenager, mostly to announce her presence gently.

Jess started and looked up at her quickly, half raising her hand. "Oh! Hi!" she said. "Sorry, but… don't you make any noise?"

Nairyry frowned. She had made noise, or at least thought she had. "Didn't I? Anyway, you said I should not make my presence known, not to mention you looked like I could have droped Thyrath on you… _again_ ," they smiled, "and you wouldn't have blinked twice. Is there something wrong :

"Oh- no. Actually… um, your clothes…" Nairyry looked down at the loose, soft pants and shirt in pale blue that Jess had provided. "Not those, but the ons you were wearing when you got here. I've got some savings, and I don't think you really should go around town in those. They're a bit… out of place in New York."

"They're new, you know," the dragonrider began, but Jess cut her off hastily.

"They're nice, yes, but you wouldn't… blend in here. People might- men might, um…" She trailed off, coloring slightly.

"You mean that I might be… taken advantage of here." Nairyry looked away. "There is no escape from it anywhere, is there?" It was not a question for her. "I do not know what is normal here, though."

"Oh, no problem. I think we can find something to get you downtown, then we'll try stuff on and get you… at least two outfits we can mix and match. I don't know how long it will take for you and Thyrath to be able to leave, but it will be a while, I think, with that wing. After we go shopping we'll rendezvous with Thyrath 'n Tristan and get your dragon down to that place I know."

Nairyry shrugged acceptance and smiled crookedly, sliding into a chair. "I do not know what to do here so I'll just follow you, I guess."

Jess smiled ironically. "How refreshing. Someone who doesn't know everything, or think they do."

The dragonrider missed her sarcasm completely. Quite seriously, she said, "I am somewhat knowledgeable of my own world, but here I am an outsider. As you said, even my clothes do not fit in here, much less my queen."

"Queen? You have queens on your world?" Poor Jess, Nairyry thought with a slightly pitying smile.

"Queen _dragon_; gold dragon. Queens are gold, and they and greens are the only female dragons. The others, bronze, brown and blue, are male. Green is the lesser color, just as brown is superior to blue but slightly inferior to bronze. Bronzes fly the queens, and all males can fly a green- mate with them when they rise in heat, that is. Usually greens are unable to lay eggs, seeing as they chew firestone to breath flame, so the role of egg-laying is given to golds like my Thyrath."

Jess just sat there. "Never mind," sighed Nairyry.

"Wait- I… did you say yesterday that your… queen is carrying eggs now?"

"Yes…" Nairyry's eyes widened, and she gasped. "Oh, no!"

"How many eggs are normally laid?" Jess asked, biting her lip.

"Eggs are soft, at first, and even later teleporting harms them with the cold. They would be stuck here."

"But how many? If there were only one or two…"

"A normal clutch…" Nairyry trailed off, factoring in length and speed of flight and health of her queen. "Thyrath could lay at least fifteen, likely twenty. Or more."

"I suggest we do our best to fix that wing of hers, then," the girl said without embellishment, face open and frank.

000

A little less than two hundred dollars, two and a half hours and two taxi trips later Nairyry looked like a fashion model as she stood in the middle of Jessica's room, looking at herself in a mirror. She was wearing a regular pair of slightly flared black jeans, under which were her old boots, which Jess thought were passable for combat boots. In the lining of her black trench coat, which reached to her ankles she had her knife, which she had refused to keep anywhere but with her.

Her tube-top shirt was dark red, and made more modest by the jacket she wore over it. She also had a pair of the coolest, inexpensive sunglasses that Jess could find. Nairyry looked at herself once more in the mirror. She did not look unlike a character from the front of some of the "totally cool DEE VEE DEEZ" that Jess had shown her she was surprised to see. Even more surprising was that she felt more confident wearing the trench coat.

She liked the change in her appearance, she decided. On the covers of the DEE VEE DEEZ the modern warrior women looked so… so… well, for lack of a better description–

so _cool_.

They seemed self-confident and able to handle anything. She thought that they could take on an army with just that chill, measured, nearly haughty look behind those dark glasses. Now she was looking at a woman who seemed ready to do the impossible. And she had. She already had.

She had, though admittedly unintentionally, brought a queen dragon of Pern to Earth. No other person would be able to say they had done that.

Nairyry looked back in the mirror and stood tall, proudly defiant of the barrio between worlds. The red of her shirt stood out against the black trench coat, her black jeans and their silvery, embroidered five-pointed stars around the cuffs. The belt was silver, too, to match.

"Like it?" asked Jess, coming into the room with a plate. She grinned. I can't decide if you look like Trinity from THE MATRIX or Electra- never mind," she said seeing Naryry's expression. "Anyway, you look awesome. Better try on the rest so you can tell if you like it. I can still take it back for a refund if something doesn't fit right."

Nairyry nodded and started to pick up the bags again, then stopped and turned back to Jess, taking off her 'shades'. "Jess?"

"Mm?"

"Thank you. I know if must have been expensive, and thanks. I just don't know how to repay you."

Jess bit her lip. "Could you take me flying? Just once?" she burst out, face hopeful.

"With Thyrath? Of course! Jess," and now she came over and took the shorter girl's hands in hers, kneeling so they were on the same level. "If you had not taken me in last night, if you had not helped me understand this strange world, I do not know what I would've done. So thank you," and Jessica was startled to see tears in her eyes, "thank you, so much, from both Thyrath and me."

Then she took up her bag of clothes and went into the bathroom, much humbled by kindness shown to a stranger when she was so far from home.

000

Her second set of clothes, and she could 'mix and match', as Jess called it, was more inconspicuous. It was good, she reflected, that as well as knowing what would blend in on her world Jess knew what was fashionable. Without her help it was likely Nairyry would have come out of the shop in a basketball jersey, a kilt, a Mickey Mouse hat and a pair of flip-flops.

Her skirt, made of blue jean material, fell to mid-shin, showing a pair of blue converse with white socks, of which she had three pair. Pulled over the belt she wore was a green-gray tank top shirt, revealed by a jacket of cloth the same color as one of the light brown drinks she had seen plenty of people drinking from plastic cups. Jess had told her the drink was called a MO–KA, some kind of KOFEE.

She stepped out of the bathroom and presented the outfit to Jess, grinning. The teenager twirled her finger. "Turn around, now." Nairyry did so, then stopped and reached back into the bathroom to retrieve her sunglasses. This time she managed to get them on the right way without help.

"Perfect. You totally look the part of a New Yorker." Jess gave her the double thumbs up, and Nairyry returned them, then returned to the bathroom and put on her jeans, leaving on her converse and tank top, and slid on her black coat.

"Someone's coming, I think," she told Jess as she came out, hearing the elevator doors open on their level.

The click of the key in the door silenced them both. Quickly the teenager shoved her friend in the bathroom and hut the door. "Hide! Don't let him see you!" she hissed, then Nairyry heard her quickly walk to her bedroom door. She listened intently, but all she could hear was the murmur of voices for a while, then a smash of glass, a short, heavy slap and Jess's small cry as she fell to the ground.


	11. As it All Comes Out

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Eleven: _As it All Comes Out_

Tristan waited anxiously. Finally he just had to go see if they were there yet. He raced out of his house, pausing only to grab his skateboard, helmet and the two packages he had been packing all morning. The backpack was a weight on his shoulder, mainly from the laptop, and he took care to not bounce it or its other contents: his lunch, the big tube of some gel that was good for injuries that his mother called 'arnica' and a roll of bandages. He had found both of these last in the First Aid kit in the bathroom under the sink.

Protected in the second bag was a small, beautifully carved lap harp, which he had found in the attic a while back, dusted off and learned the basics of how to play. He thought that the dragon, so lonely without anyone to talk to, might enjoy some simple tunes. His mother, a professional harpist, said that it was from his great grandmother, and had started teaching him. By now Tristan had the basic knack down.

He paused at the last street dividing him from Central Park, then picked up his skateboard and dashed across in typical New Yorkien disregard for streetlights. Tristan resettled the harp cast on his shoulder, set the skateboard down and sent it rolling. With a few strides he leapt in a practiced motion on it and turned just as easily to avoid a streetlamp. Impatiently he raced through the trees on the asphalt path. At the place he had entered the trees last night he flipped up his skateboard by slamming down on the edge and caught it, then looked around casually. Finding no one he stepped of the path and after a minute came to the tumbled trees and Thyrath the Golden.

_Greetings to you, little Rider,_ she responded. Tristan frowned, puzzled at her remark.

_Rider?_ he asked. _What?_

Thyrath blinked down at him. _Dragonrider. I believe you would be a good rider. I am not wrong often._

_I name you Dragonrider, little one._

000

Nairyry threw the door open and strode angrily out of Jessica's room. In the kitchen Jess was getting up from the floor while a man, with one of the beer bottles Jess had named for her in one hand. An empty one had smashed on the ground.

Like a tsunami just before it strikes Nairyry strode up to the man, whose arm was raised to strike her friend across the face again, and grabbed it in a one-handed grip of dragonrider steel muscle. She reached down and offered the teenager her other hand. Jess started to protest. "Nairyry, you should-"

"Never mind what I should do." Her eyes, burning with fury, never left the man's. "Go into outside please. I'll rejoin you in a minute. Go!" she ordered when Jess faltered. Then she sprinted to the door, grabbing her keys, wallet, flute case and jacket on the way and went down in the elevator to wait for Nairyry on the Lobby benches.

Back in the kitchen, the dragonrider glared at the man, still holding his arm. "Tell me," she said, voice deadly soft, "that you are not her father."

"I am, 'n you've no right to let her off a beatin' she deserves!" He twisted, trying to free himself from her grasp. When he tried to hit her with his other fist she swiftly twisted his arm up behind him and laid her knife along his neck, jamming him against the kitchen table.

"There is not doubt in my mind" and her voice hissed with rage "that you more deserve a beating than does she. She has courage, strength and compassion, even after you've been punching her like that for years, though I've no idea how."

He tried to squirm, but she kept a hold on him. "When we return later, you will apologize sincerely to her." Nairyry took her knife away slowly, then marched him to the bedroom and shut the door behind him. With that she sheathed her knife and strode to the elevator. One woman looked out of her door as she passed; a dark figure with a long trench coat flaring out behind her like the wings of an avenging angel and a face as hard as stone.

000

Jess looked up as the dragonrider strode out of the elevator. She looked more likely to breath fire than her dragon did.

They returned to Central Park.

After a minute Nairyry spoke, with iron control in her voice. "Your father will be apologizing to you when we return."

"I didn't need any help. I've managed him like this before."

"Even though he beat the pulp out of you. I saw those finger-marks on your arm, you know."

"It's not like I could escape it anywhere, you know. The city– the whole world's full of– _them_. People like that."

"All the worlds." The bitterness and anger in Nairyry's voice made Jess stop, but the dragonrider kept going, looking at the ground, her coat flaring out like wings.

"Yours too?" asked the teenager as she caught up.

"Yes." she replied shortly. "Yours. Mine. They're all the same. But there are good men, too, you know." she added, stopping to look Jess in the face. Nairyry took her friend's hands in hers. "I–" Again she paused, then looked around and gestured for Jess to sit with her on a nearby bench.

Her story came out, but it was hard. "I was– I was raped, when I was younger. Listen to me: the worst thing you can do in a bad situation, is give up, become a rock, taking everything and just hardening. You have done a wonderful job of it and I just waned to remind you. Don't fight back all the time like a bully, but don't ever, ever just take it, locking your emotions away."

She looked into Jess's eyes so she could see the younger woman understood. "Never just take it, but never give back too much, either. I didn't actually harm your _father_" she spat the word out "but I won't let him hurt you again. He had no right to do that to you."

000

Tristan was still blinking at the dragon's words when her rider and Jess came into view. "Hi!" he called.

Thyrath snaked her head around to nudge her rider. Nairyry threw her arms around the queen's nose, squeezing happily.

"Okay, so now that you're here would you please tell your crazy dragon that she's wrong? That I'm no dragonrider?"

"What's this about?" she asked Thyrath, frowning. The golden dragon turned to look at her rider with one eye, and the young woman could see herself in many of the facets.

_He can speak with in his mind. Though he is not as powerful as Lessa, he is strong-willed enough to attract a hatchling._

Nairyry turned to Tristan with a calculating, thoughtful expression. "If Thyrath says this, then you must be."

"A dragonrider? Dragon _friend_, maybe…" He still looked dubious. "Me? A _dragonrider_?"

Thyrath seemed to smile, and ducked her head a little. "What's the matter with you?" he asked irritably.

"She is carrying eggs, Tristan," Jess said softly. "Prob'ly a lotof 'em."

"Eggs!" he gasped. "Oh, no… What happens when they hatch? We can't have a bunch of babies running around New York!"

"And there's another problem," admitted a suddenly weary Nairyry as she sank down to lean against her dragon's shoulder. "There had never been a riderless Pernese dragon in all of history."

Tristan and Jess looked at each other, then at Thyrath's wing. "I hope she can fly really, really soon," commented Jess. "'Cause I don't think we can keep twenty-five dragons in Central Park."


	12. The Empire State Building

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Twelve: _The Empire State Building_

Though they wanted to get Thyrath and Nairyry home they also had become close friends in the short time they had known each other. Jess hadn't seen her father since she had dashed out of the condominium, and she was grateful. Her mother was in some country walking around in high heels hanging on the arm of some rich dork from Mars or something, and her father had never quite gotten it into his head that she had only been with him for the few years that she had tried to live like a normal working person. Now she was done with him and her daughter, as she had likely been done with so many other men and children.

Together the two young people had gone around New York, showing Nairyry around and spending most of their time biting their mental fingernails hoping that the next day Thyrath would fly. They showed Nairyry anything and everything they could afford, spending the finally-useful results of working over summer and on the weekends and, of course, the checks and cash of adoring relatives from unknown countries who had sent money because they didn't know them at all.

Both knew their parents wouldn't miss them; Tristan was one of many children, and not the most favored of them. He felt no worries about skipping out on a chore or two that one of his other numerous adopted or related siblings could do. Jess didn't care if she never saw her father again, and it was not as if she'd ever find her mother in the wide world.

That evening the three of them were trying to find the best route to get Thyrath, on the ground, to the hidden place Jess had suggested when the queen suddenly rose to her feet. _Enough!_ Her cry was audible to all three. _I am sick of being on the ground; I will _fly_ to this new hiding place. Remove my bandages, Tristan_, she ordered. _I will try to fly now._

_Where from? If you try to fly here you might hurt yourself!_ Her rider cried even as she unwrapped the cloth that had been tied in place only recently. Se was surprised to see that it look much better, with only a slightly paler gold place where the forked stick had punctured her wing. Maybe that arnica stuff worked really well on dragons.

_High,_ she said. _High._ Tristan followed her gaze as she looked up– to the highest point in the city, the Empire State Building.

Oh, no, he whispered to himself, shaking his head. Not good. Bad _bad **BAD**!_ Then he acted without thought and grabbed all his things as the others grabbed theirs, lading them into the most compact areas.

Without any other thought except to be in the sky again Thyrath knocked trees aside until she was on the path. The humans followed, trying to dissuade her, and saw that she took up the full breadth of the path.

They raced after the dragon. Finally, when they would have all fallen down in exhaustion, Nairyry swung up to Thyrath's neck and reached a hand down to Jess. After positioning the girl behind her she did the same to he boy. Jessica clung to her friend, and Tristan tried not to do the same.

Thyrath made quite an impression on the people playing a game in the field when they came out of the trees. As people either froze in shock, ran for their lives or fell on the ground and covered their heads she stopped and lifted her head, a true dragon queen.

Then she turned around them and continued on her way, with her three passengers scared half out of their skins. Nairyry continued to try to turn her dragon back but Thyrath was not even listening. At the first busy street she took a few running strides and leapt over all the cars, and once more continued on her way. All four were oblivious to all the cameras snapping around them and the several crashes they left in their wake. Down the street the gold dragon walked, carefully avoiding injury to anything except ,perhaps a few inanimate objects, and finally stopped in front of the Empire State Building.

Thyrath stood as straight as she could then tilted her head back and gave a bellow of satisfaction. Even as the echoes were still coming she crouched back on her hind legs and then launched herself at the skyscraper and took a purchase by knocking out windows so make way for her claws.

Never in her life had Nairyry been so grateful for the flying straps. Thyrath would catch her if she fell, probably, but she would not like the experience. The other humans just latched on like leaches to anything; her, the neck ridges, the saddle, her, each other…

"I never liked the movie King Kong," commented Tristan nauseously. Jess would have laughed, but she was too busy trying to stay alive.

And then, finally, they were at the top. Thyrath stood on the top of the Empire State Building like a magical legend come to life, spread her wings, stretched her neck upwards, and let loose a roar the world would never forget.

Tristan and Jess held onto the person in front and Nairyry the harness and flying straps as the queen reared on her hind legs. Thyrath lunged off the building, glistening wings spread wide–

and flew.

Below, all was hushed and reverently silent. People took pictures and even this noise seemed loud in the silence. Thyrath soared around the buildings delightedly thrumming to herself. Then, by a freak chance, a window washer's security rope broke as he leaned over for a better view of the golden dragon. His scream echoes loud above the hushed streets. In a maneuver that brought gasps, applause and cheers from her audience Thyrath spun and dove after the man.

She caught him her claws low enough above the ground to cause the New Yorkers and tourists to duck, carefully keeping from scratching him, and soared upwards once more as they exalted in the fine save.

Then Thyrath folded her wings, dropping at a heart-pounding pace for a second, and back winged neatly to keep her balance on her hind legs as she released her catch ,then settled to all fours and tucked her wings against her sides. Her expression was so satisfied and smug that Nairyry, Jess and Tristan had to smile. "Sorry about the scare, friend!" the dragonrider called down to him. "Thyrath has only just gotten back on the wing!"

Almost like a signal everyone began to cheer and ran forward to touch the dragon. For the minute she tolerated it. Many of them were scared but had been swept along by the crowd. One young girl was trying to get a look at her hero and was bowled over. Thyrath saw and, rumbling comfortingly, extended her neck, causing everyone to get out of her way. Then the dragon ever so gently picked her up by the back of her shirt in her teeth and carefully deposited the child on her own golden back with the other three.

"Are you all right?" asked Jess, taking the little girl in her arms from the queen. The girl nodded, still looking at the dragon in awe. Jess dried the girl's tears with her coat sleeve and lowered down to the arms of a woman waiting nervously below with the look of a mother terrified for her child.

The crowd had watched as the dragon picked her up and now they resumed their babble. Thyrath lowered her head and one set of lids, eyes whirling with regular green blue, but with the slightest hint of yellow, indicating that she was not entirely comfortable in this huge human stampede.

After little while, in which her riders looked around almost warily she raised her head with a snort. She rose to her feet and half unfurled her wings. With a grace and elegance a Lady Holder would have envied, Nairyry thought, she made her way out of the crowd, who parted to let her and her passengers through.

Once free of the people she started to run, wings open to give her a little bit of lift. They were nearly back to Central Park when the queen stopped so suddenly, turning to the side slightly, they nearly fell off. Tristan and Jess peered around a taught-bodied Nairyry to gasp in shock.

A barricade, with armed police, blocked their way. As Thyrath tried to back up they quickly found that squad cars and more officers prevented them from going anywhere.

"What do you think they want?" the dragonrider asked her friends softly.

"Isn't it obvious?" Tristan's voice was filled with sarcasm and scorn. "They _want_ Thyrath." And us, she thought.

The guns were aimed at them. Nairyry decided to take a risk. "You have no right to hinder us," she called. "Once we reach an area where my dragon can take off easily she and I will leave. I have no quarrel with you. Please stand back so we may come through."

The only answer was more guns.

_Tristan. Jess. Nairyry._ It was Thyrath, sounding strange and as angry, yet controlled, as her rider had ever heard a dragon sound. Her eyes whirled very fast, wholly reds and yellows now. _Take a deep breath._

_And hold on tight._

"Uh-oh!" commented Nairyry. It was all any of them had time for.

By the time the police tried to fire at them, they were gone. The crowd behind the barrier was silent. Not one person in New York City would ever forget the dragon on the Empire State Building and how she had vanished, leaving memories and photographs as the only evidence of her presence.


	13. Back to the Future

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Thirteen: _Back to the Future_

Tristan woke but kept his eyes shut as he frowned, trying to remember the last thing he had known. He remembered the dragon, Thyrath, and her rider, Nairyry… the leap off the Empire State Building…

and the police barricade.

Thyrath had told him, Jess and Nairyry to take a deep breath and hold on… and then his trip. In the between place he had lost consciousness. That was the last thing he had seen.

Tristan opened his eyes. He was slumped over something. After a moment he realized that he was still on Thyrath, and leaning forward against Jess. Jessica, in turn, had fallen forward onto Nairyry, who was tilted over Thyrath's neck.

"Hey, Thyrath!" He slid stiffly down the gold dragon's side to land on sand. More shakily than he would have like to admit he made his way to Thyrath's head. The queen was asleep. "_Thyrath_!" he yelled. With a jerk that jolted poor Jess off her neck to land on soft sand she woke, eyes whirling red and yellow. They settled to green and blue and spun slower.

"Sorry, but you need to wake up," he told her, going over to help a very disoriented, confused, shaken, bruised, traumatized, dirty and half-asleep Jess get to her feet. "Help me get Nairyry off, Jess," ho told her. She still looked shaken, bruised and sandy, but at least she was able to stand up. And able to assist him getting the dragonrider down.

"So… just where… where are we, Thyrath?" the teenage girl asked once they had gotten Nairyry to the ground. In answer the golden dragon stood and bugled happily at something in the sky. Tristan and Jess turned to see dragons, two bronzes, a gold and a green, spiraling down to land.

First on the sand was one of the bronzes was the first to land. He came to twine necks with the gold in a very affectionate gesture. The man skidded to so sudden a halt that he nearly fell over on top of Nairyry. He knelt beside her and pulled her close, hugging her tightly.

"You must be W'lam." There was suppressed glee in her voice and she was trying not to laugh.

The bronze rider looked up at them, likely to ask a question, but Nairyry turned her head slightly and opened her eyes. "Nairyry!" The tone in his voice was all Jess needed. She burst out laughing and Tristan chuckled along with her.

"You're W'lam, all right!" she cried, then flopped back against Thyrath and patted the golden hide companionably. It took her a moment to regain her composure.

"Would you please explain to me just _how_- _where_, _when_ by the first Egg you found Nairyry!" They grinned at his explosion, odd in a man still holding his love and rocking her gently. "I thank you more than you can even imagine, but–"

"Later, please. We'll tell everything later, W'lam." Only Nairyry's firm, calm voice had any effect on the totally confused rider. He bent his head and kissed her fiercely, passionately and very protectively.

"You will," he told her grimly. "Shells, what're you wearing?" He plucked at the black coat, frowning.

The goldrider looked down at her trench coat, glanced over at her younger friends and sighed, grinning sheepishly up at W'lam. "_Long_ story…"

000

"You needn't worry about the time you spend here, Tristan. No mater how much time we spend at this end of time, at your time we'll bring you back at the right time." The young man continued to study the sea from his perch on a fallen tree along the shore. "That made no sense at all, did it." Nairyry waited, watching the waves as she leaned against a tipped-up branch.

His reply, when it came, was troubled. "That's it, you know. I don't exactly want to go back. I saw just how much your people have to teach me. I'd like to study harp, you know. And I know Jess'll be staying, so I'll have a friend to talk to who knows what I'm saying. You too, but her because–" he glared at Nairyry, who was smiling knowingly at him. "_Anyway_…" he glared again "I'll understand the things from earth she talks about and she'll understand me."

Nairyry still smiled and he stuck out his tongue at her, then hopped down to the beach and strolled away. She watched him go. And suddenly 'After', after the last Pass of Thread, looked a whole lot brighter.

000

She continued to stare out over the sea. It didn't really seem so big now. In the sevenday since she and the two teens had come back she had explained many times what she had dome for the two months she had been gone in this time. Strange, she reflected. That two days had _felt_ like two months.

W'lam came to sit beside her. A breeze blew her hair away from her face, held back by a leather strip tied around her forehead. Her trench coat flapped over her jeans, tank top and converse, making her gloves sway on her belt beside her knife. An odd mix of Earth and Pernese fashions, she thought vaguely.

With a sigh she leaned against W'lam, turning her face up for a kiss. "They'll be good candidates. The dragons call Tristan Dragon-Sumner still. He's more mentally powerful than even Lessa. I think that Jess can hear any dragon as well as Aramina, but it's not a problem. All the dragons also agree she'd be a good candidate for Thyrath's clutch."

W'lam chuckled. "The last time Pern had a dragonrider from earth it was the first clutch of eggs. Faranth, Duluth, Carenath… and here we are; these children like close to the ancestors of the first riders.

She softly whispered one of Lessa's sayings. "The world turns and times change…"

"Oh, how times change," she said to herself.

"They do indeed."

They sat quietly for a moment. Jess raced past the two dragonriders with her lovely blue skirt billowing around her legs, Tristan in pursuit, both teenagers shrieking with laughter. She splashed lightly into the water and her friend came in after her. He caught hold of her and spun her around. Then he dropped her and held her close. She reached up and kissed him soundly.

Sighing happily the qoldrider stood and watched as Thyrath winged down. She leapt nimbly off the uprooted tree and ran to her dragon. They spiraled up into the sky, where waiting patiently were Jurcath and W'lam. It had been slower than usual to get off the ground because of Thyrath's egg-heavy bulk. Nairyry felt a thrill as she realized that her dragon's first clutch was coming soon, any time now. They were pretty much Weyrbound because of it. That would be nearly the same as having her own child.

_The young man grows attached to Jess,_ commented Thyrath. _Good. She deserves gold and he bronze._ Again they looked at the teenagers from earth. By the Egg of Faranth, Nairyry, dragonrider of queen Thyrath the Golden, was glad that she would be able to see how Tristan Charleston and Jessica Palmer, two strangers from another time and world, would live, learn and grow.

And she felt certain that whatever they did, no mater where it was, the three of them could share something no one else would know.

Suddenly the dragon, more bronze than gold right now, jolted in the air and gave a satisfied rumble of pleasure.

_You know, _commented Thyrath, _we should hurry to the Hatching Grounds right now. _Right_ now._

Nairyry smiled, slightly embarrassed, but pleased, and looked over at W'lam. She knew he and Jurcath had heard.

_Then hurry we shall._

000

And they did hurry back to Nais Weyr, but that tale is for later. The tale of the Impression of Thyrath's clutch, of Jessica's and Tristan's Impressions. The tale of Vailath, the only silver dragon and the return to earth is for another time.

For now, suffice to say that they are to live happily for many long Turns after with the dragons on Pern.

000

The Dragonstime series in written and chronological order:

_Dragon in New York City_

_Across Time and Two Worlds_

_Starsflight_


End file.
